1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer that performs recording by ejecting ink to a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink-jet printer is configured to, while conveying a recording medium such as a recording paper, eject ink from nozzles of an ink-jet head to the recording medium thereby recording a desired character, image, or the like on the recording medium. A conventional ink-jet printer includes a cap that covers a face (hereinafter referred to as an ink ejection face) on which ejection ports of nozzles are arranged, in order to prevent ink in the nozzles from drying up while an ink-jet head is not in use or in order to perform nozzle purge for eliminating clogging of the nozzles. In general, moreover, the ink-jet printer also includes a wiper that wipes off extra ink adhering to the ink ejection face after recording an image or alternatively after performing the purge operation, to thereby keep good ejection of ink from the nozzles.
Foreign materials such as dust, paper powder and the like may sometimes adhere to a portion of the cap referred to as lip which will be brought into close contact with the ink ejection face. If the ink ejection face is capped by the lip with adhering foreign materials, the foreign materials on the lip may undesirably adhere to the ink ejection face. As a result, failure of ejection may be caused by entry of the foreign materials into the ejection ports of the nozzles, or damage to the ink ejection face may be caused when the wiper wipes ink off the ink ejection face. Therefore, an ink-jet printer adapted to clean a lip of a cap for removing foreign materials therefrom has been proposed.
For example, there is known an ink-jet printer including a wiper blade that cleans an ink ejection face and a cap cleaner that cleans a cap. Both of the wiper blade and the cap cleaner are mounted on a holder that is movable in parallel to the ink ejection face. When the cap is spaced from the ink ejection face, the holder moves between the cap and the ink ejection face, so that the wiper blade wipes ink off the ink ejection face while the cap cleaner cleans the cap.
However, while an ink-jet head is in use, the cap is dry because it is left spaced from the ink ejection face. Accordingly, when the cap cleaner cleans the cap, high resistance is caused therebetween. Thus, it is more likely that vibration occurs, which may hinder sufficient removal of foreign materials adhering to the cap.